William Hamilton was an English painter and illustrator. The son of one of Robert Adam's assistants, Hamilton was sent to Rome to be trained as an architectural draughtsman. He studied under Antonio Zucchi (who was later Adam's chief decorative painter), possibly in Rome from 1766 and in London from 1768. At the Royal Academy Schools from 1769, Hamilton developed into a figure painter and exhibited portraits and subject pictures at the Royal Academy from 1774 to 1801. He became ARA in 1784 and RA in 1789.

Hamilton's most interesting work pertains to the theatre, particularly Shakespearean. His most distinguished large pictures are the 23 he painted for John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, including A Scene fro...